


No Planet B

by HogwartsToAlexandria



Series: Marie's Stony Shorts 2020 [10]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Activism, Alternate Universe - College/University, BAMF Steve Rogers, Best Friends Know Best, Climate Activist Steve Rogers, Fluff, Getting Together, Hard of Hearing Steve Rogers, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Tony Stark is so in love, hard of hearing character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:54:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24571873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/pseuds/HogwartsToAlexandria
Summary: "You are so smitten," Rhodey's voice in his ear made him jump."What the--" Tony hip checked his best friend, "You can't do this to me! I have a heart condition!""Yeah, yes you got a heart condition indeed," Rhodey mused, his mouth pursed as if he were holding back laughter that could fill the entire room - which it could, but no, not nice - Tony squinted his eyes at him."I would come up with a snarky reply, I would--""-But you wanna stare at him a little longer before he leaves, got it."Smol Steve Appreciation POTS Bingo Fill, Y1: Activism
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Marie's Stony Shorts 2020 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649605
Comments: 19
Kudos: 221
Collections: POTS (18+) Smol Steve Appreciation Bingo





	No Planet B

**Author's Note:**

> Another fill for the tiny Steeb bingo! Hope you'll enjoy this bout of idiot Tony (quote end quote Flame's words). 
> 
> Thank you to Neb and Ven for enabling this and to Flame for the beta and invaluable validation 😂💚

If there was one thing no one could take away from Tony it would be the fact that he liked being challenged. He liked being questioned, and pushed to the brink of speechlessness. He liked people who made good points with strong voices. 

He liked the way this guy, with his flashy blue and pink hearing aids and too large tank tops was moving about the room, checking on everyone as they worked on their banners and speeches for the convention that was to take place after the demonstration. Above all, Tony loved that when it seemed the man wanted to be in several places at a time, he'd stop using his voice and sign rapidly instead and his friends would understand him right away. 

His own ASL skills were a little rusty, and especially so in the climate change vocab side of things but he still caught some of it. The man's energy was easy to read in itself. 

"You still listening to me?" Pepper's voice interrupted his thoughts. 

His fellow TA and best friend gave him an unimpressed look when Tony immediately nodded. 

"No, you're not. Watching Steve again, whatever," Pepper sighed.

"Steve? Who the hell is Steve?" Tony blinked, biting back a smile when Pepper put her hands on her hips, looking ready to scold him. "What were you saying, then?" 

She looked like she had more to say on the topic but refrained at the last minute. 

"I have a class at 5, will you be able to cover my shift at the Climate Club?" 

"The Climate Club? What do you do there?" 

"Serve drinks, mostly." 

"Oh, Pep, I don't know, you know I'm trying to--" 

"Yup, I do, I do know, and I wouldn't ask if I didn't absolutely have to give that class. But, hear me out, I was thinking…"

"Yes?" 

"Steve will probably be there, and that in and of itself should be a good incentive to stay on your best, right?" 

Tony was really tempted to tell her off, feed her a lie she wouldn't eat, but his gaze once again strayed to the man in question, to the way he was once again brushing his long fringe of hair behind his ear as best he could with his aid in the way, and he sighed. 

"Yeah," he answered, only half remembering what he was agreeing to. "Sure."

"You're the best, thank you," Pepper pecked his cheek, "I have to go find Jim, be good."

"I'm always good," Tony scoffed, but when he looked to the side, she was already gone. 

He took a sip from his water bottle - May had no right to be this hot already - and found a box to sit on out of the way. He nearly choked on said water though, for as soon as he'd sat down, Steve Rogers himself seemed to both notice Tony and decide he had something very important to tell him. Which meant the man was walking towards him, and trapping Tony in a blue gaze that became more and more entrancing the closer he got. 

"You busy?" Steve said in lieu of a greeting. 

"Uhm, no? I guess not?" Tony said, confusion sure to mar his face. 

"Great, I need someone to write on my face that hasn't been drinking booze since we started prepping and you're on water so I'm assuming…?" 

Oh well _shit._

"Sure," Tony agreed, his voice a little wobbly as he did his best not to blush on the spot. He focused on not letting his hands shake instead of watching the way Steve was getting settled on the box right next to him and their knees touched. "What do you want me to write?" He asked once he'd laid out the face-paint Steve had handed him, and he let his gaze flicker back to Steve's. 

"No planet B," Steve said, his voice a little weaker than it usually was, but Tony assumed he was regulating because they were close, or maybe he was saving his strengths for the protest. Either way, the gentle motions of his hands as he signed at the same time pulled Tony's attention there, and he had to blink a few times to not stare at how delicate they were. _Pull yourself together, Stark._

"No planet B it is," Tony nodded. 

As gently as he could with the nerves being so close to Steve filled him with, Tony cupped the man's jaw to angle it sideways and get started. He did not think about how smooth Steve's jaw was. And he did not think about all that Steve's passion for this cause and others inspired him. Tony did his best not to let his gaze stray from his artwork on the man's skin, not to lose himself in the plumpness of his lips just a breath away or the thickness of his lashes, so long. 

"You okay, Tony?" Steve mumbled against Tony's careful hold on his face. 

"Mmh what?" Tony shook his head. 

A small smirk appeared on Steve's face before he freed himself from Tony's grasp. The way he studied his face made Tony want to squirm in place. He stayed put though. Only lowering his gaze to frown at his knees at Steve's next question. "Are you done? You've been staring at me for the past few minutes, got something on your mind?"

 _Might as well tell him_ , Tony thought. He could still hear Pepper's voice from the night before, telling him all about how he was an idiot for not going for it, that Steve liked him, she was sure. _She was sure_. 

Tony opened his mouth to respond, ready to take a deep dive and fall flat on his face if he had to, but then one of Steve's buddies started gesturing across the room. 

Even though Steve had his back turned to him. 

But then he started shouting Steve’s name so Tony closed his mouth and nudged Steve so he'd see his friend, a James Buck or something. 

Steve gave him a sheepish smile, "Gotta go," he signed and Tony was happy he knew those signs even if seeing Steve go was kind of not fun just now. But then the man turned to him again, as if on an afterthought, pointing towards his own face, "How do I look?" 

Tony wracked his brain for the right sign and grinned when he found it, holding both his open hands at head height and pushing them forward twice energetically, "Great, you look great," 

And he did. Fuck if he did. 

"You are so smitten," Rhodey's voice in his ear made him jump. 

"What the--" Tony hip checked his best friend, "You can't do this to me! I have a heart condition!"

"Yeah, yes you got a heart condition indeed," Rhodey mused, his mouth pursed as if he were holding back laughter that could fill the entire room - which it could, but no, not nice - Tony squinted his eyes at him. 

"I would come up with a snarky reply, I would--"

"-But you wanna stare at him a little longer before he leaves, got it," 

And it was the goddamn truth. _Damnit_. If only Rhodey didn't look so smug when he was right. But then again, he told Tony that all the time, too. 

The sight of Steve rounding his troops for the protest, banners and signs and face-paint and water bottles all at the ready made it easy for Tony to forget about being discovered, and to focus on Steve being amazing. Because he was. And fuck if Tony didn't wish he had that kind of energy. People and rallying protestors were never his thing. Tony could talk, he could talk a mile long without a drop of sweat on his metaphorical orator brow, but could he _pep_ talk? Not so much. 

Steve's passion was tangible in every movement he made, in every sign he formed, in every micro-expression he expressed himself with. Tony couldn't possibly be blamed for not paying attention to anything else but the way he looked, repeating the slogans the group had decided on. So smitten indeed. 

"Are you going?" Rhodes nudged him, a lot less snark in his tone. 

"No, I… I wish, I can't, the crowd, no," Tony stuttered until Rhodey passed his arm around his shoulder, pressing their sides together. 

"I know man, I was just wondering, seeing as you love him so much and all."

"Shut up, Rhodeybear." 

"Not just yet…"

Rhodey did not shut up. But it was just as well, because having spent this much time near and with Steve only to not be able to join him to the march because of his stupid crowd issues proved a bit trying for Tony. Especially since he'd been on the verge of telling him… telling him what anyway? Every time he'd tried over the last few months since he'd met Steve in one of his tutoring sessions - and then later at the GSA, and then later again at the Activist Student seminar… Every single time, Tony had ended up opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. Only, the water was his comfort zone, and the air he was suffocating in was the possibility of being rejected by the one guy he was genuinely interested in instead of any of the ones he'd seen over the years since he'd started college. 

The protest lasted almost four hours. Eternity or thereabout. But then Steve came back to the AS quarters and it turned out Tony wasn't as ready for that as he'd been thinking, yearning for his presence as he was. 

The sight of Steve, flushed in exhaustion and sweaty enough for the face-paint to have smudged over his cheeks and forehead took Tony's breath away. The fact that the first thing he did as he entered the Climate Club lounge was to look around like he was looking for someone, and that that someone turned out to be Tony himself when the man grinned upon finding him and started walking towards him right away, well, Tony _did_ have a heart condition. And it was acting up seeing Steve's smile, and again, those blue eyes that seemed like they took in all of you no matter how long they looked at you. Blue eyes that had Tony hooked, hanging to them like a lifeline, unaware of the people around him that weren't Steve. 

The man came to a halt barely a foot away from Tony. It was still too far - Tony didn't say that, in fact, he internally cursed himself for being this needy - but then Steve did something Tony hadn't expected, once more. He reached forward and grabbed Tony's hand. They both looked at their fingers, watching as Steve laced them together and Tony's mouth parted slightly from the softness of them and then Steve cleared his throat and started talking and signing one-handedly at the same time. 

"I've had something on my mind too," he said, making Tony tilt his head to the side, daring himself to hope he knew where Steve was going with this. 

"You have?" He asked nonetheless. 

Steve hummed, and his eyes - _his damn eyes_ \- went back and forth and again, from Tony's own gaze, to searching his face, to glancing at his lips. 

Steve's free hand moved again, the other one squeezing Tony's tighter. Tony watched, trying as hard as he could to keep his breathing under control. Lost cause. The man smiled - unfair - turned his hand into a fist with only his index finger sticking out, and pressed it to Tony's chest, poking gently. 

"You, you are what's been on my mind," Steve said. 

Tony Stark had a lot of resolve, when he didn't really care. He had none, when he was knee deep into something like he was knee deep into this force of nature, this beautiful man, this… Steve Rogers, with his big speeches and his gentle voice, with his grand gestures and the little things he'd been doing trying to show Tony his feelings were reciprocated - one more time Pepper had been right all along… Tony had no resolve at all, when he was in love with someone. 

Good luck to anyone trying to determine who took the last step, or who was the first to cup the other's jaw, or whose lips were the ones to touch the others first. They were kissing before they knew it, and they were still kissing when Tony fully realized what it meant. Steve's lips were as soft as the rest of him, his kissing wasn't. His kissing was as fierce as Steve always was, and his delicate hands as all-encompassing as the feelings Tony hadn't been able to quiet since he'd met him. 

When they did break away, it was only from each other's mouths. Their arms wound around each other's shoulders, hiding their faces from view, their foreheads joined and their grins echoing one another. Only then did the loud cheering around them reach Tony's ears. His eyes widened, Steve laughed, and Tony joined him. 

"My friends have been saying I'm very smitten with you," Tony blurted out, blushing while Steve chuckled. 

"I've noticed," Steve murmured in his ear, then kissed Tony's heated cheek, "but I have good news." 

Steve pulled away slightly, letting his arms fall to Tony's waist, and here was that smile again. 

"Mine have been saying the exact same thing."


End file.
